Thinking Out Loud

Fair warning to anyone reading this one, there's no real plot on this one.  I am very much just thinking out loud.  If you don't mind riding the train of thought, read on.  If you need smooth flowing narrative prose, back away slowly and don't make eye contact...


I believe that the Church is a place for people to work out their junk. 


I believe that people should be able to walk into church and be as honest and vulnerable as a person at an AA meeting would be.  Think of it like this:  "Hi my name is Daniel and my life is an unmanageable mess.  So much so that I know I need help putting it back together."


And the beautiful thing would be that everyone there would say, "Hi Daniel!  Don't worry, our lives are unmanageable messes, too.  Let us walk with you as we learn to be Beloved together."


Bam, community is expressed from the get go.  The foundational belief is that we are broken, but we are loved.  And, we are not alone.  I meet a lot of people who really, truly think that they are the only messed up people in the world.  And I have met more than my fair share of people who really, truly believe that the Church is not a place to express brokenness, or vulnerability, or a desire to be loved.


But I believe that we are given the gift of community because we are all broken.  But we are all loved. 


Or, as I heard in a sermon from Mercy Street:


We believe that life is meant to be lived from two pockets. 


A short rabbinic saying claims that every human being lives out of two pockets. In one pocket there is a message that says, "You are dust and ashes." In the other pocket, the message says, "For you the universe was made." 



Yes, we are all broken.  But we are loved and have been given the opportunity to become more.  Because you don't make the universe for someone you don't love.


And you don't write on the hearts of people you make, "Loved you are" if that promise isn't meant for the heart it's written on.


I love Jeremiah 31:31-34 where it's said of God, "I will write the new covenant on their hearts, and from the least to the greatest, they shall all know me.  I will be their God, and they will be my people."  (Daniel's paraphrase, sorry if I offend.)


God is saying, "My promise to you is that I am yours and you are mine.  I wrote that once on tablets of stone, but it was too easy to think that the Promise was only for the Holy people.  The reason I'm writing it on your heart is because I want you to know that this promise is for you."


Yeah, I'd love to be in a community where we owned our two pockets.  That's my dream.